THE romantic myth of Brazil’s football heritage of carefree kickabouts on the Copacabana is as alien to Alex D’Acol as the rain currently pounding his adopted Hamilton home .

Because when your childhood is tarnished by the memory of friends executed by drug gangs – when your own father only survived a savage mugging because the bullet jammed in his attacker’s gun?

Well, it’s easy to see why a bit of stormy weather isn’t going to faze a guy who is just relieved to be free of the senseless violence of his home town on the outer fringes of Sao Paulo.

It’s 11 years since D’Acol left that all behind as a 17-year-old, upping sticks to leave for Athens where he played for a string of Greek clubs.

But it could have been anywhere as far as D’Acol was concerned – anywhere but Brazil, where he still fears for the safety of his family and friends to the point where every call home is made with more trepidation than excitement.

The striker said: “I get asked a lot if I will go back to live in Brazil. I would say no because of the violence.

“It’s normal when someone asks how your day has been and you reply: ‘I got robbed – never mind let’s go for a beer.’ It’s as normal as checking my Facebook page.

“My dad Jose has been robbed five times. He runs an estate agents and one time he almost died because the robber pulled a gun to his head and hit him a lot. The only way he lived was because the gun jammed and did not fire.

“The poverty in Brazil is huge. Of course there are rich people but Brazilians are ashamed of their government. People pay high taxes but we don’t get it back in terms of health and education.

“The main reason for the problems is education – if a kid doesn’t get educated properly they are going to have issues.

“I grew up with a Christian education and feel blessed that my family gave me a good example of how to live my life. But I have many friends who are dead because of drugs.

“My city was Ribeirao Preto and I grew up between the favelas, playing football with a lot of kids from these places.

“I saw them every day but kids aren’t smart enough to say no and if your parents aren’t there to say: ‘No – don’t do that’ then one bad decision can change your whole life.

“So many of my friends are dead because they owed money to drug dealers.

“Where I lived the gangs didn’t try to recruit – the young boys simply followed the older boys and their example.

“Drug dealers in Brazil don’t do drugs themselves. When someone does drugs they tell kids it’s wrong – but they still follow the path of older boys and that leads to disaster.

“I could have gone that way but I was lucky that my family gave me support and taught me it was wrong. Education is a weapon that we can use against crime.”

With Rio set to host the Olympics next year D’Acol expects there to be more protests from the locals, as there were in the build up to the 2014 World Cup .

To him and vast swathes of the 200million population, it’s obscene that the country should spend billions on new stadiums and infrastructure while the majority of citizens don’t feel safe and have no access to basic medical care.

D’Acol added: “I don’t want to scare people but the reality is that it’s dangerous.

“In Rio the main people who get robbed are tourists because they carry their wallet and have a camera in their pocket. It is really dangerous because so many people have nothing.

“I agreed with the World Cup protests because the government do not invest in education and health.

“You will only get attention if you are close to dying.

“My mother once needed surgery and went private but still had to wait two months.

Hamilton striker Alex D'Acol gre up in the Favelas of Brazil

“The protests were about this – the money being spent on football when health was so bad – and I agree with that. It’s shameful. Brazil should be a rich country and has really good people.

“My mother Elizet, dad Jose and brother Arthur are still back in Brazil and I went back in June for my yearly visit. But I don’t feel like it is home now. I feel 100 per cent Brazilian but it’s not home any more.”

For now that home is windswept, rainy Hamilton but the 29-year-old is happy to put up with the climate in order to enjoy big occasions like Saturday’s visit to Parkhead. And it’s more than just on the pitch where the striker has settled.

He said: “I’ve really fallen in love with Scotland because my wife and I really like greenery.

“I didn’t really speak English well before coming here but it’s much better to learn a language in the country.

“I live in Hamilton and really like it. We never get weather like this in Brazil – two days with rain – but I knew before I came so it’s no problem.”